For a Specific Type of Diner (& Drinker (& Listener)) CDMX’s Hiya Wine Bar is the Perfect Restaurant Experience

Food, Drink & Music in Perfect Harmony

Evan Dale | June 17, 2026

Hiya Wine Bar

Niche would be an understatement. You’ve got to walk through one restaurant, down some stairs, and back up another quarter-flight before you’re there, but once inside Hiya Wine Bar, the bustling streets of Mexico City, and the world beyond it fade out of view and out of memory. While there, you’re there. And while you’re there –  intimately packed in with other tables in meandering half-booth seating, dim-lit by soft oranges and yellows, overseen by a row of the white-sharpie-price-marked wine bottles available for purchase, and auditorily inundated with top-tier, equally niche hip-hop and R&B selections – it would be hard to fathom that you’re still in Mexico City at all. From the aesthetic and emotive atmosphere of the space – carefully curated by local design firm, Michan Architecture, to immerse a diner in the sophisticated detail of Japanese culinary culture – to the food and drinks – we’ll get to it that a sec – it’s a removal from what one at first might expect from Mexico’s megacity capital.

And yet, to expect anything not to be immediately available at least somewhere across Mexico City’s sprawling patchwork of culture-rich neighborhoods is truly a crime of ignorance.

Hiya is an expression of CDMX’s deeply modern intersection with Japanese culture, because, at the end of the day, Mexico City is such a massive global cultural capital that at some point it intersects with just about everywhere else. Merge that notion with some of the world’s best inland access to fresh seafood, and one of the top-rated dining scenes – from food trucks to Michelin tasting menus – anywhere on the planet, there is, in fact, a surplus of phenomenal Japanese food in Mexico City.

Hiya is its best example – one of the best examples of food, drink, and music plated and poured perfectly in step with one another – and for a lot of reasons. One of the main being that its menu, its drink offerings, and its energy not only celebrate Japan, but also bleed of Mexico and its deeply wide-ranging roots. The restaurant’s balance – its give and take – between the two is really where its virtuoso comes into play. And between technique, flavor, and culture, there is plenty of middle ground to explore. Fresh seafood, hearth-fired meats, a celebration of ingredients in their purest forms. All these notions lie central to the culinary identity of both peoples. There’s also a communal acknowledgement that the kitchen (and the bar) lie central to the cultural importance of both, even more than most others.

Hiya spatially feels like a step into a proper Japanese listening bar – of which you’ll also find many others in Mexico City, and even sprouting up in other cities in other countries with Japanese and Mexican roots. Sparsely lit, auditorily plentiful, and carved with a respect for the minutia for Japanese interior design, Hiya’s existence as an escape ensures that from the moment a guest enters, they’re plunged into something, somewhere entirely new.

Once a guest passes the open kitchen which shares its space with the bar, smoke from robatayaki flames and the delight of fresh-squeezed citrus further immerse yet simultaneously steal the attention of everyone towards the menus. To drink, you order a Yuzu Margarita, and to eat, you pair it with Spicy Persian Pickles. Your taste buds are now properly warmed up with the bright, eccentric notes. Pink Siifu’s 2021 album, GUMBO is playing loud enough that even the guests one table over and sharing the same banquette can’t hear you and your date fawn over how explosive the flavors are.

Once you’re settled in, you begin exploring the robust and unpredictable wine list. Maybe you’ll opt for something orange, French, and funky to add a new element to the cultural intersection already at play. Its minerality will work well with the leaner cuts of raw fish on the menu, while its acidity will carve right through the fattier ones. Plus, with Krisy’s Julie et sa gogo danseuse playing through the speakers, the language of love is speaking to you. Or perhaps, you’ll go for an overlooked Mexican red – the Tempranillo-Petit-Syrah blend at first seems heavy for the cuisine at hand, but the menu’s Robata section is telling another story. Ultimately, you start with the server’s recommended sake to pair with the list of handrolls you’ve ordered, and to pair with the soulful sensitivities of VanJess’s Slow Down now working its way through the speakers. The Mexican red comes by the glass, after all, so you can taste it with the later courses.

The Kanpachi-Yuzu is the first temaki to come, the sweet acidity of Japanese citrus melting the Hawaiian Amberjack the second it hits your tongue. Then, the Salmon-Spicy-Truffle, introducing something heartier and more savory into the fold. And lastly, Soft-Shell-Crab, crunchy, decadent, and begging for you to order something smoky and rich from the open flame.

So you do. Charcoal Grilled Salmon, Chicken Thighs, and Arrachera – all skewered – come in sequence, as does that glass of Mexican red. The smoky char only enhances the natural sweetness of all three cuts of meat, while the sweet nothings of Snoh Aalegra’s I Want You Around makes the tannic earthiness of the wine stick around just a little longer.

For dessert, it’s only fitting that – with your ears now musically entrenched in the fine-dining thematic discourse of Blvck Svm’s michelinman album – you skip the sweets, and by the recommendation of the staff, order Hiya’s legendary Cangreburger. It’s a wagyu cheeseburger fired on the Robatayaki, melty cheese dripping down all its edges, with some welcomed crunch and brightness from a few well-placed pickles.

Culinarily, liquidly, spatially, auditorily, Hiya just might be the most well-curated exploration of sensations anywhere in Mexico City, or anywhere in the world. Nowhere else does it all so well.